Weddingbee Blog

Ci vediamo più tardi, or “see ya later,” in Italian. Why am I saying that, you ask?

::::hangs head in shame:::: We are canceling Jamaica.

Please don’t be upset, because this isn’t goodbye, just see ya in a few months. I’ll start from the beginning…

When we first were engaged, the whole family thought it would be fun to have a family vacation to Jamaica. It just so happened that we got engaged around the same time this was being discussed. Everyone bugged us  to get married in Jamaica so we could have our family vacation at the same time. SCORE! Everyone was in and excited. That was almost 2 years ago. I have been gung ho about it ever since. I liked the idea of something unique and fun for everyone. Yes, I had a hard time not being able to control things or have the ability to pay attention to details, and our vendors were very limited, but the family was so excited.

Fast forward to this past summer, when reality started to set in. Not for us, but for our guests.

As I emailed everyone giving updates about the planning and reminded everyone that passports should be in the works by now, panic set in. No one had saved, no one had prepared, no one even had passports yet. I didn’t panic, I just gave everyone a little nudge and told them that it was time to get serious.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago: no one took my advice seriously. Only one person had even inquired with our travel agent. No one had booked or even started the passport process yet, and we are six months out! Then, panic set in and the tears flowed. I emailed/called everyone and kept getting the same response: “We just cant afford it right now, sorry.”

I sat down with Mr Handy, hung my head, and cried. What do we do now? Keep trucking along and pray that people come? Continue on and get married alone with no one there to witness it and celebrate with us?

I had to do some digging. What meant the most to us? Location, or who would be there celebrating with us?

Obviously, we want our family and friends there.

I understand that times are tough. Hell, we have had one income for the past five months! It’s the simple fact that we started this process 2 years ago and EVERYONE was on board and so excited. We even gave everyone a 2-year notice just to make sure they had time to save.

We discussed all of our options:

• Getting married in Jamaica, and having a big reception here when we return
• Just eloping there and being done with it
• Canceling Jamaica all together and doing something local

In the end, we decided to cancel Jamaica and do something here. It means more to me to have my brothers walk me down the aisle, and have everyone nearest and dearest witnessing our nuptials.

Am I heartbroken? Yes.

Am I sad? Very.

Am I angry? A little bit.

Is it the end of the world? No.

Am I optimistic? Very much so.

We are still getting married. Our location will have to change and the date will have to change. There is no way we can still plan a wedding from scratch in 6 months with me being in school and working full time.

When we were planning the destination wedding, my entire heart was in it. The only downfall I kept facing was that I wanted to be more hands on. I wanted to zoom in on details and personalization. I wanted it to be US. I am very creative and love to DIY but wasn’t sure how I would get it to Jamaica. Now, I can do that. Now I can really make it us.

We are still keeping our vintage black and white theme. We are going to make it a little bit more formal now and a whole lot more personal!

Stay tuned! Once we finalize details, pick our venue and get moving again, I will be back, so stay tuned: a September wedding is in the works (and now they can’t back out!).

Signing off for now,

Ms Handbag & Mr Handy